Blackburn College presentation within SL discussing second life as a design and built environment application

1. Second Life & Design Major Project By James Gandy

2. Aims of the Project To get used to using Second Life itself. Meet people from a construction/design related background. Discover how Second Life can help or benefit design in construction at present as well as in the future. Possibly construct a venue within SL for this presentation to take place.

3. What is Second Life? Second Life is a 3D platform, similar to a social networking site. SL has an internal economy and currency called the Linden Dollar (L$), L$ can be used to buy virtual goods including buildings, vehicles, clothing etc... Companies such as IBM and Michelin are conducting business through Second Life, as well as many universities.

4. Traditional Building Design Commission an architect to design a building which best suits you’re requirements. The building would then go through the planning process. Then finally the construction process. Changes can be costly in both time and money.

5. Why choose a Virtual World? Free viewer application. No expensive software required Multi-user. You can be standing face to face, inside of your imported model, with anyone, anywhere in the world, in a matter of minutes. Realtime. Collaboration. Permissions systems with objects enable you to share what you’ve built with others. Community. Some projects need to remain private. But in some cases, you want to share your project and invite feedback or community participation. Low/no barrier to entry. Low cost. Remote access. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world.

6. Designing in SL Design work in Second Life can be done using specialised design companies such as Daden. Alternatively any person can design and build anything they want. With the only boundaries coming in the form of the amount of land they own, and then the limits of their own imaginations.

7. Virtual Aloft Starwood Hotels who became the first company to open a virtual hotel within Second Life. The new design was to be a replica of the company’s new ‘Aloft’ line of hotels. With this in mind the developers tried to make the SL users experience of the site as realistic as possible. The whole design itself was correct from the Aloft branded drinks through to the size of each bed in every room.

8. Aloft cont.... Following the completion of the design stage the hotel was opened to the Second Life population, subsequent feedback from the residents led to several changes in the design. The hotel was initially shut so that these changes and recommendations could be carried out so that the hotel could then be reopened revealing the new additions. Shortly after the opening of the hotel Aloft decided to announce their transition from Second Life into the real world, they marked this occasion by donating the virtual land back to the SL community.

9. Interviews I have interviewed several people during my research so that they can give their own opinions on the benefits of SL on design. Each person I’ve interviewed has a background in either construction or design. All interviews were carried out on SL itself.

10. What they said! Keystone Bouchard: “absolutely positively - game changer.” Arabella Buscaylet: “if this was previewed on SL, well it wouldn’t have happened you could see what the result would be that is very valuable.” Brand Woodin: “in my view it’s on usability being able to model and create in SL prior to RL.” Judy Cockeram: “For me VW's are going to become used more and more in the process of designing”

11. In Conclusion I have now come around to this way of thinking that although Second Life has received a lot of bad press, the benefits as a whole far outweigh the negativity surrounding it. As far as getting ideas out there and receiving feedback on them, there does not seem to be a better forum for that on the internet or in real life The Aloft Hotels project shows this whole process and should be seen as a benchmark for companies and universities who wish to experiment with virtual worlds.